“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” These words of Jesus’ priestly prayer resounded during the Gospel in the Church of the Annunciation in Trois-Épis. The small town in Alsace, France welcomed hundreds of faithful from various cities where the Redemptorists of the French area of the Province of Europe South operates. On the warm morning of June 14, two young Vietnamese, Jean Trong Thien Nguyen and Jean-Baptiste My Hoang, were ordained priests.
We attended with great emotion the Holy Mass presided by our former Superior General, Monsignor Michael Brehl, now Bishop of the Diocese of Pembroke in Canada. The liturgy, impeccably prepared by the local community, saw the participation of numerous Redemptorist confreres, of the priests who accompanied the vocational journey of the ordinands and above all of the family and people who knew and collaborated with the new priests. The presence of the Vicar General of our Congregation, Fr. François Stanula, and of the Superior of the Province of Europe South, Fr. Gennaro Sorrentino, made this moment of grace even more solemn.
In the days preceding the priestly ordination, the second phase of the Provincial Chapter of the new Province took place in the house of Trois-Épis and the capitular brothers wanted to be close to the young Vietnamese. For many years, France has been going through a difficult period of secularization so the joy of seeing the church filled with so many guests, listening to the choir’s songs and observing the beauty of the different cultures, brought so much emotion and some tears of emotion to the participants.
Perhaps the first to have a heart overflowing with happiness was Monsignor Brehl himself who, in his opening words, pointed out that this was the first celebration of priestly ordination he had presided over, since his episcopal consecration. In his homily there was no lack of words of gratitude and exhortation, but above all of the typical elements of our Redemptorist mission, the place of calling and evangelization of new priests.
In the homily of Msgr. Michael, we heard the echo of the speech that Pope Leo XIV gave that same week to the priests of Rome: “I ask you with the heart of a father and a pastor: let us all commit ourselves to being credible and exemplary priests! We are aware of the limits of our nature, and the Lord knows us deeply; but we have received an extraordinary grace, we have been entrusted with a precious treasure of which we are ministers, servants.”
It is truly a gift for the new Province of Europe South, the ordination of these young men who have left their distant country to serve with love those whom Jesus has placed in the places where they studied, carried out their diaconal ministry and their Redemptorist mission. At the end of the celebration, the ordinands themselves and the Provincial of Europe South spoke, thanking the Lord for the grace of the ordination of Jean and Jean-Baptiste.
A loud applause and a cry of joy greeted the announcement of the new destinations of our priests. The superior of the Trois-Épis community, Fr. Antony Campos thanked the Vicars General of the dioceses of Strasbourg and Saint Denis, the Rectors of the Saint-Suplice Major Seminary and the Interdiocesan Major Seminary of Lorraine, and the members of the council of the Saint-Suplice and Metz Seminaries for their presence. Words of gratitude were addressed to the heads of the Institutes of Theology and the Seminaries who contributed to the formation and patient spiritual accompaniment of the ordinands. Finally, gratitude was expressed for the presence of the Redemptorist confreres, priests, the nuns and those who offered significant spiritual support to the young Vietnamese. At the end of the Mass, the new priests stopped for a long time to bless those present, and the celebration continued with a fraternal lunch offered by the Trois-Épis community.
Looking at the beautiful canvas of the presbytery in our Marian Shrine, one of the most famous destinations of religious devotion in Alsace, which represents the Visitation of Mary, we like to remember the words of the Holy Father in the recent celebration of priestly ordination in Rome: “The joy of God is not noisy, but it really changes history and brings us closer to each other. The mystery of the Visitation is an icon of this… From the meeting between the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth we see the Magnificat spring forth, the song of a people visited by grace”. Each of us and the people to whom the new Redemptorist priests are called, have been visited by grace. Let us all sing our praise to the Lord, let us thank the Redeemer who never tires of calling us to his service in the Church and now let us ask that Jean and Jean-Baptiste may be credible witnesses of Christ in today’s world and authentic and joyful sons of our Holy Founder Saint Alphonsus.
Fr. Piotr Sułkowski, CSsR.
